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Cooling Quiet HSF (they all look the same to me!)

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by ShakeyJake, 20 Dec 2013.

  1. ShakeyJake

    ShakeyJake My name is actually 'Jack'.

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    Hello folks.

    I am upgrading my Phenom 955 to an i5 4760k and I am looking for a new cooler please. The build has a big emphasis on quietness, and as most of the time my pc is a work/home pc I really want something that is as quiet as possible whilst idling. I very occasionally boot into windows for a quick game or two, so high performance is a (secondary) concern. I'm not really too bothered how loud the cooler is whilst under high load seeing as I tend to wear headphones when gaming and I never game anyway really.

    With that in mind, I have been looking at coolers but the problem is that they all seem much of a muchness and you can't really rell one from the other based on specs. I really don't want anything too heavy on my mobo (or do I worry unnecessarily?) and if possible I'd really like something in red and black and white! Colour is the bottom priority mind, but there's an accidental theme developing with my Asus 760 and the mobo I'm planning on getting.

    I was looking at the Thermalright True Spirit 140 BW based on nothing more than a big fan and brand I recognise but I noticed BT recommends the Silverstone. Ideally less than £40 or so, any higher seems unnecessary but I could be persuaded.

    If you're interested, the planned build is:

    Fractal Design Define XL R2 (already have)
    i5 4670k
    MSI Z87-G45 Gaming
    16GB Corsair Vengenace Low-Profile
    Asus 760 OC (already have)
    Be Quiet 530 Modular PSU (already have)
    128GB Toshiba SSD (already have)
    Some hard drives (already have)

    Can anyone offer a suitable cooler or even an improvement to the spec?

    Thanks,
    Jack
     
  2. doyll

    doyll Minimodder

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    True Spirit 140 is good low priced cooler.. but there are better along with much higher prices.

    Best way I know of to be cool and quiet is to use PWM fans on both case and cooler using a PWM splitter with PSU power. Use motherboard CPU fan header to supply PWM signal to all fans with master fan on CPU. This allows all to idle down to 650-750rpm.. nice and quiet. But when CPU load increases and CPU fans speed up so do case fans thereby supplying cool air to hard working components when needed.

    My sig rig idles mid 20s @ 700rpm and all cores running 95-100% is mid 40s @ 950-1050rpm. Loudest thing is my GPU.. and that's not much over a whisper. :D
     
  3. Bede

    Bede Minimodder

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    Coolers have backplates which spread the load over the motherboard. My PC has travelled back and forth in my car many times, HSF attached, without causing problems. I've got a Gelid Tranquillo which suits me nicely, one of the Noctua HSFs might do you well too.
     
  4. The_Crapman

    The_Crapman World's worst stuntman. Lover of bit-tech

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    The Tranquillo's are very quiet. Got one on an old qx something-or-other in my gf's pc and runs dead quiet.
     
  5. MightyBenihana

    MightyBenihana Do or do not, there is no try

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    +1 for the Gelid Tranquillo. Very quiet, cool and well priced.
     
  6. jinq-sea

    jinq-sea 'write that down in your copy book' Super Moderator

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    I used to run one of these, too. It's decent!
     
  7. faugusztin

    faugusztin I *am* the guy with two left hands

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    http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-082-TR

    But it is hard to make a mistake with any tower cooler really. All you need to watch out is conflict with RAM heatspreaders (where Macho is one of the better options due the offset of the heatsink) and conflict with the first PCI-E slot (where usually 14cm coolers can have problem).
     
  8. ShakeyJake

    ShakeyJake My name is actually 'Jack'.

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    Thanks for advice guys!

    The Tranquillo looks like a nice bet, and it's cheap too. I noticed that Gelid call the GX7 their flagship cooler, do you reckon it's worth the extra £10 or so? The other one I was looking at over xmas was the Zalman CNPS11X Extreme. It's got a nifty look and the current cooler on the AMD is a Zalman flex which I really like.

    I'd thought about the memory problem, I blocked a memory slot on this rig which I why I ended up with the skinny Zalman Flex. I wasn't aware that wider coolers could block the pci slot though. Does my gpu have to go in the first slot? I certainly won't be doing sli any time soon.
     
  9. AlienwareAndy

    AlienwareAndy What's a Dremel?

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    Personally I would go with what you know, get the True Spirit. After winding up with two iffy, poorly made Gelid products now (an extension that was wired incorrectly and fried two 12v pins on my PSU connector) and the horrific Icyvision with the 1mm gap between the contact plate and GPU core (good thing I inspected before turning the rig on !) Gelid can take a running jump.

    I've had a couple of Thermalright products and the build quality and attention to it is nothing short of amazing.

    Zalman coolers are pants.

    The best air coolers are the NHD-14. The Silver Arrow (TR but it's massive like the NHD and can cause ram issues) and the Dark Rock pro. All of which are expensive, all of which are huge.
     
  10. Otis1337

    Otis1337 aka - Ripp3r

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    Cheap and cheerful but still quality go for Arctic Cooling. The Freezer 7 has been around since the dawn of time. Its tried and tested more than any cooler i know off.
    Thermalright is the Rolls Royce of coolers, but you pay for it.

    I personally run the Titan Fenrir, which is a bit of a legend, but is hard to find now i think.

    Gelid looks to just be cheap tat to me, but still get decent reviews it seems. And Zelman are hit and miss in my experience.
    Zalman CNPS 2X is a solid cooler for the money. Valve have even chosen it to be there CPU cooler in there Steam Machines. But like Andy said, they have made some utter crap as well.
     
    Last edited: 29 Dec 2013

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